PORTLAND (AP) – Florence Olebe will cast her first ballot Tuesday after becoming a U.S. citizen in October.

Olebe, who moved to Portland from Sudan six years ago, is among the 556 immigrants in Maine who became citizens over the past year, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In the previous year, 515 people were naturalized in Maine; 367 people were naturalized the year before that.

Voting takes on special significance for immigrants who have gone through the naturalization process. In Sudan, immigrants say, elections were primarily for show, with few people voting and the government being run by the same small group of people.

“I think voting is one of the benefits,” Olebe said. “We have a right to choose which president we think would be right for the country.”

Immigrants who are motivated to become citizens are more likely to be active politically, said Ronald Schmidt, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine.

“People who go through the trouble of naturalization are already predisposed to vote,” Schmidt said.

Part of the reason is that the naturalization process provides a lengthy civics education, culminating in a test on U.S. history and government.

Schmidt said outside influences such as the outcome of the 2000 election and reforms in immigration law also can be driving forces for people to become citizens.

Nyapeni Doul, who recently became a U.S. citizen, said she likes knowing that she can contact elected officials who have the ability to make change.

“I’ve been here for six years and I feel like I’ve become part of American life,” said Doul, 36.

Now she worries about the cost of living, high taxes and how the United States will help her friends and family back in Sudan. Tuesday she will cast her first vote, and she hopes it will set an example for her children.

“I need them to understand what it is to have citizenship and follow the rules…,” she said. “I want to be an example.”